


A Moment Between Brothers, Wherein Love is Stretched but Not Yet Broken.

by Ferith12



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, I feel like Bellatrix should be her own warning really, I have no idea what to call this fic, Sirius is such a mess, Walburga is a horrible mother btw, and of the three people present he might just be the most well adjusted, animal cruelty, cousin cruelty, so is Regulus really but it's his POV so we can't tell as well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-14 04:49:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16033319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ferith12/pseuds/Ferith12
Summary: Regulus, Sirius, and Bella during the yule break of Regulus's first school year.





	A Moment Between Brothers, Wherein Love is Stretched but Not Yet Broken.

It’s the Yule break of Regulus’s first school year.  Sirius is reading some muggle fiction book, just to be provoking, probably.   Bella has found a mouse to play with.

“Crucio!” Bella says, red light hitting the tiny creature again and again.  With each word Sirius tenses, bites down harder on his lip, but he doesn’t do anything, does the smart thing for once in his life, lounging on the couch with his back to her, muggle book in front of him.

Regulus watches, eyes drawn to the mouse as it screams.  “Stop it,” Regulus says, softly, without meaning to.

Bella turns to Regulus, eyes alight.  She is in a  _mood_ and Regulus is an idiot without it even being on purpose.  She raises her wand from the mouse and points it at Regulus. “Crucio!”

In less than a blink of an eye, Sirius jumps over the back of the couch and punches his cousin, nearly seventeen and a Death Eater, in the face.

When Regulus can think again, Sirius is on the ground and Bella is standing over him, bombarding him with red light from her wand.  Regulus runs for mother.

If Regulus had told Mother that Bella hurt him, too, maybe she would have done more than just tell her niece off, but Regulus did not get to be his parents’ favorite by complaining.  As it is, Bella just laughs her wild, mad laugh that sounds so much like Sirius’s, and Sirius waits until Mother leaves the room before he stands up.

“Are you all right?”  Sirius asks, the first words he’d spoken to him since the start of school, eyes full of concern for  _Regulus_  in a way that warms a deep, secret part of him that the rest of his family would call soft.

“Yes,” Regulus says, even though he’s still a little shaky.  Sirius is shaking much more than he is, but he’s pretending to shake only with fury.  He might be mostly shaking with fury.  


“She’ll pay for this,” Sirius says, “Nobody hurts my baby brother.”  


Regulus does not object to being called a baby.  He doesn’t say he’s more worried about Sirius.  He doesn’t say that he’s worried they’re falling apart, the two of them, have been since Sirius was sorted, that Sirius is too reckless and always has been.  That neither of them can protect the other anymore.

Instead Regulus does what he hasn’t done in ages, what he’s afraid he might never have a chance to do again, and launches at his brother with a hug.  Sirius sways worryingly, but he hugs back, and laughs, softly, so that he hardly sounds like Bellatrix at all.

The rest of the holiday, Regulus happily watches his brother wreck revenge.  Nobody can make life hell for a person without being caught quite like Sirius when motivated. 


End file.
